shall not fast as [ye do this] day, if ye would have God hear your prayers, and answer them from heaven, to make your voice to be heard on high, either in clamorous devotions, or in quarrels 5 one with another. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? that I will approve and accept of? a day for a inan to afflict his soul, to mortify himself by external abstinence, [is it] to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes [under him?] wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the 6 LORD? canst thou believe it will be so? [Is] not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? that is, cancel those obligations which have been extorted in an unjust manner, and loosen those in some measure, where the rigour of justice would be destructive to the debtor: 7 [Is it] not to deal thy bread to the hungry, to send food to the poor and indigent, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out, or afflicted, to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh, 8 thy own kindred and countrymen? Then shall thy light, or happiness, break forth as the morning, dart itself out as the sun through the clouds, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; all thy wounds shall be quickly healed: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward; his providence shall secure thee from enemies before and 9 behind. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I [am,] ready to help thee. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, all instruments of oppression, the putting forth of the finger in contempt, and 10 speaking vanity, or falsehood; And [if] thou draw out thy soul, thy affections and compassion, so that thy heart go along with thy gift, to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness [be] as the noon day 11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; fill thee with plenty, when others are in want: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not; which pours out 12 its streams to all that want and come to receive them. And [they that shall be] of thee, thy remnant or posterity, shall build the old waste places; the temple and city, that the enemies had destroyed: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach,; The restorer of paths to dwell in; thou shalt build new towns, enlarge old ones; those parts of the country that are desolate, and the paths overgrown, shall be restored, and fortified places built up 13 and repaired. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath,' and [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own

• This expression is taken from trampling under foot that which we disregard.

pleasure, or, making it a day of diversion, nor speaking [thine own] words, but the whole of thy discourse be suitable to the holi14 ness of the day: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, have true delight in the sabbath; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, thou shalt make foreign conquests, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoke [it.]

1.

IT

REFLECTIONS.

T is the duty of ministers to represent to their people their sin and danger. This is always proper to be done, for, without it, communities will probably be injured, and souls will certainly be lost but it is especially so in times of public danger. Then God has particularly commanded it; and they may hope to be heard with particular attention. They are neither to spare themselves nor their people; but to show them their transgression and sin with great plainness, that all may understand it; with great seriousness and earnestness, and with tender compassion, as proceeding from real love to their souls. May all ministers have wisdom and courage to do so; and all their people lend an obedient and attentive ear.

2. We here see how far hypocrites may go in external services. They may seek God daily, express some delight and satisfaction in attending his service; they may ask the way of duty, and take a pride in bringing their sacrifices to his temple; yet indulge themselves in sensual pleasures, lay heavy burdens upon others, have strife and deceit among themselves, and smite with the fist of wickedness. All their pompous services are nothing but outward show, to make their voice to be heard on high, and can never be pleasing to that God who searches the heart, and requires truth in the inward parts. To all such God will say, Bring no more vain oblations ; your offerings and sacrifices are an abomination to me. It is not ceremonial observances, nor hanging the head like a bulrush, nor walking in sackcloth and ashes, but justice and charity that make our services acceptable to God; to remove heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke, deal bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and afflicted. Then shall we be happy in ourselves, acceptable to God, and he will surround us with his favour as with a shield: then shall our prayers be heard; and when we call God shall answer, Here am I; ̧ a present help in every time of need. Reformation and goodness is the way to comfort and happiness.

3. See the honour and happiness of God's faithful servants. Their souls are drawn out to God in devotion and love, and drawn out to the poor in compassion and tender affection; and therefore God will pour down his choicest blessings upon them. Light shall

This may signify, Thou shalt see thy country delivered from thy enemies, and thou shalt go forth on horses or chariots to see the fortifications once possessed by them.

rise upon them in darkness; God will guide them continually, satisfy their souls, while others are in want, make them as a watered garden, flourishing and fruitful. They and their families shall be blessed through many generations, and repair the breaches that sin and death have been making in the church and world. Happy they who are in such a case! yea, thrice happy they whose God is the Lord.

4. We have here another powerful motive to regard the sabbath. If we remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, lay aside our business and pleasure, call it a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and honour him, not finding our own pleasures, nor speaking our own words; then it is promised, thou shalt delight thysellf in the Lord; enjoy the highest pleasures in communion with him and a sense of his favour. God will bring such to his holy mountain, make them joyful in his house of prayer, and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon his altar. Let this engage us to a strict observance of the sabbath, as one of the best preservatives of the power of religion in the soul, and as the most likely means to secure the divine blessing on ourselves, our families, and all our comforts. Hypocrites may keep solemn days of fasting; but none but sincere and pious souls will constantly keep the sabbath from polluting it.

CHAP. LIX.

The Israelites having questioned God's power and goodness, because he had not regarded their fastings and prayers, the prophet proceeds further to show them the cause of it.

1

'BE

EHOLD, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, his power is not weakened; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear your prayers, those in particular which you offer on your fast days: it is not from any inability or disinclina2 tion on his part, that you are not delivered; But the true reason of your present calamities is, that your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face, that is, his favourable regard, from you, that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness; you are guilty of murder, theft, and slander. 4 None calleth for justice, nor [any] pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity; there is none to espouse the cause of justice and 5 truth. They hatch cockatrice eggs, or, the eggs of the basilisk, and weave the spider's web, (which is unprofitable) in order to deceive and entangle others: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, he that hath any dealing with them is sure to suffer by it, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper; instead of a fine 6 fowl there comes out a serpent which he dares not touch. Their

we

webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works [are] works of iniquity, and the act of violence [is in] their hands; their designs shall 7 not come to perfection, nor do them any good. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts [are] thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction [are] in their paths; they are eager and intent upon all their schemes of 8 violence and mischief. The way of peace they know not, have not regarded, and [there is] no judgment, no respect to justice or right, in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: 9 whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Therefore is judgment far from us; neither doth justice overtake us : wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, [but] we walk in darkness; we suffer oppression from our enemies abroad, and from tyranny at home, and all our expectations are disappoint10 ed. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope, or wander, as if [we had] no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; [we are] in desolate places as dead [men ;] all our schemes are confounded, our councils infatuated, and we are quite 11 sunk into despair. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves; the sorrow of some is noisy, and of others silent, or secret : we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] 12 it is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them; our 13 own consciences give full evidence against us: In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood; we have been guilty of false judg14 ment and oppression against men, and of revolting from God. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; as if afraid to enter among such a wicked crew, where she has met with such opposition: for truth is fallen in the street, and there is none to raise her up, and equity cannot enter into any of our 15 courts or public places. Yea, truth faileth in our commen conversation; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himself a prey and the LORD saw [it,] and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment among his own people.

16

And he saw that [there was] no man, and wondered that [there was] no intercessor; that there was none to attempt a reformation or even to intercede for the land: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, to Israel; and his righteousness, it sustained him; his faithfulness carried him through all opposition; that is, God determined to show that it was his own goodness in regard to his honour and faithfulness, that led him to inter17 pose. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; he appeared as a warrior, completely armed, against the Chaldeans and other enemies of his people; and he put on the garments of vengeance to their ene• mies [for] clothing, and was clad with zeal for his people as a

18 cloak. According to [their] deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense; he will bring judgments on the 19 country that oppressed and injured his people.* So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; many shall be brought to the knowledge and fear of God. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him; if new enemies should come, like an inundation which threatens to bear down all before it, God by some secret powerful method will overcome them.

But this is only an earnest of what God would do for the Jews hereafter; a promise is added of their conversion to christianity in 20 the latter day, for so St. Paul expounds it, Rom. ii. 26. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD; Christ shall come for the relief, deliverance, and salvation of all that will believe in and obey 21 him. As for me, this [is] my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that [is] upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever; Christ shall not only have a transient triumph, or work out a temporal deliver. ance, but establish the Jews in God's covenant again, in which they shall continue to the end of the world; teaching them by his word and spirit, and rendering them effectual on multitudes from one generation to another, even to the end of time: the Jews, when nationally converted, shall never revolt from God any more.

1.

REFLECTIONS.

E here see the source of national calamities, and what stops the current of divine favours; and that is, iniquity. God is still powerful, wise, and good; able to restore our peace, to help us against our enemies, and to answer our prayers to their fullest extent. But sin separates between him and us; hinders our prayers from being acceptable to him, and intercepts his mercies when coming to us. We see how displeasing national degeneracy, and the want of piety, justice, and charity, are to him. That it is not only murder, theft, oppression, and false witness, that displease him; but also lying, slander, muttering perverseness, and walking in any of the crooked ways of sin. God sees all this, and it displeases him. This occasions disappointment, confusion, and mourning. It is in vain to pray, unless we do our part to reform. Let every one of us in his private character, and as members of society, remember, that if we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord will not hear us.

Bp. Lowth translates the verse thus; He is mighty to recompense; he that is mighty te recompense will requite wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, to the distant coasts a recompense will he requite.